Patent Grant
7360729
This application is a non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/521,437, filed on Apr. 26, 2004, which is incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates generally to food waste disposers, and more particularly, to grinding mechanisms for food waste disposers.
Food waste disposers are used to comminute food scraps into particles small enough to safely pass through household drain plumbing. A conventional disposer includes a food conveying section, a motor section, and a grinding mechanism disposed between the food conveying section and the motor section. The food conveying section includes a housing that forms an inlet for receiving food waste and water. The food conveying section conveys the food waste to the grinding mechanism, and the motor section includes a motor imparting rotational movement to a motor shaft to operate the grinding mechanism.
The grind mechanism that accomplishes the comminution is typically composed of a rotating shredder assembly with lugs and a stationary grind ring. The motor turns the shredder plate and the lugs force the food waste against the grind ring where it is broken down into small pieces. Once the particles are small enough to pass out of the grinding mechanism, they are flushed out into the household plumbing.
Grind mechanisms that utilize a fixed lug on the rotating shredder assembly are often susceptible to jams when grinding hard food waste, such as beef bones. The use of an induction motor may contribute to the probability of experiencing a jam because of its relatively low stall torque. To reduce the occurrences of jams, swivel, or rotatable, lugs that move out of the way before a jam can occur are employed. However, with swivel lugs, the energy displaced to the food waste is less and therefore can result in compromised grind performance.
The present application addresses shortcomings associated with the prior art.
Among other things, a grind mechanism for a food waste disposer that includes an impact mechanism for freeing jams is disclosed. The impact mechanism uses the stored energy in the disposer's rotating elements to be transmitted to the disposer's motor shaft from an impact member to a part of the rotating shredder assembly. This energy is then transmitted to the lug and to the fixed lugs and to the food waste particle that is creating the jam. The impact energy then breaks up the food waste particle, freeing the jam.
In accordance with certain teachings of the present disclosure, a shredder assembly for a food waste disposer includes a rotatable shaft and an impact member fixedly attached to the shaft to rotate therewith. A shredder disk is attached to the shaft via a clutch allowing the shredder disk to slip relative to the shaft when the shredder disk jams, wherein the impact member strikes the shredder disk to transfer rotational energy to the jam. In certain exemplary embodiments, the shredder disk includes a support member attached thereto, wherein the impact member strikes the support member when the shredder disk slips.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
The grinding mechanism 110 includes a stationary grind ring 116 that is fixedly attached to an inner surface of the housing of the grind mechanism 110. A rotating shredder plate assembly 112 is rotated relative to the stationary grind ring 116 by the motor shaft 118 to reduce food waste delivered by the food conveying section to small pieces. When the food waste is reduced to particulate matter sufficiently small, it passes from above the shredder plate assembly 112, and along with water passing through the food conveying section, is then discharged from the disposer.
The lower disk 122 defines teeth 124 about the periphery of the disk 122 for chopping food wastes. Further, the lower disk 122 defines a radius larger than the upper disk 121, such that the teeth 124 extend beyond the periphery of the upper disk 121 to provide an “under cutting” arrangement, in which the lower disk 122 extends below a portion of the grind ring 116.
As noted above in the Background section hereof, fixed lugs in general can be prone to jams with hard objects such as bones. To address this, the illustrated embodiment includes an impact member 200 that is secured directly to the shaft 118 of the motor so as to rotate with the shaft. In the exemplary illustrated embodiments, the impact member 200 comprises a “T-bar.”
The shredder assembly 112 is not fixedly attached to the shaft 118, but rather, is attached such that it slips if the disposer load increases beyond some predetermined level, such as when the disposer jams. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, the support plate 126 is captured by a series of components that create a slip clutch. This clutch allows the rotating shredder assembly 112 to turn with the shaft 118 when not under load, but when the disposer is loaded or meets with a jam, the clutch slips allowing the assembly 112, which includes the support plate 126, to be impacted by the T-bar 200. Since the T-bar 200 is fixedly attached to the rotating shaft 118, it continues to rotate with the shaft 118 when the shredder plate assembly 112 stops rotating due to the clutch slipping. The impact member 200 rotating with the shaft 118 strikes the support plate 126 of the shredder plate assembly 112, transferring rotational energy to the jam to free the jam, or material creating the load.
More specifically, in the embodiment shown in
The clutch consists of a thrust washer 210 immediately above the T-bar 200 and another thrust washer 212 immediately above the support plate 126. A cupped spring, or Belleville, washer 214 and a cap nut 216 secure the clutch and rotating shredder assemblies 112 on the shaft 118. The Belleville washer 214 maintains the predetermined preload so as to maintain a controlled slip point in the clutch. The thrust washers 210, 212 may be made of a polymeric material that is non-corrosive, non-hydroscopic and abrasion resistant. All metallic components preferably are stainless steel to avoid corrosion. The T-bar 200, support plate 126 and the square drive portion 220 of the shaft 118 are heat treated to increase the mechanical properties to acceptable levels.
An impact mechanism 300 in accordance with an alternative embodiment is shown in
Another alternative embodiment is illustrated in
Another impact mechanism shown in
The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 60521437 | Apr 2004 | US |
